MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 7, Number 32, 29 August 2000. Editors: Dr. David J. Thomas, Math and Science Division, Lyon College, Batesville, AR 72503-2317, USA. dthomas@lyon.edu Dr. Julian A. Hiscox, School of Animal and Microbial Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AJ, United Kingdom. J.A.Hiscox@reading.ac.uk Marsbugs is published on a weekly to quarterly basis as warranted by the number of articles and announcements. Copyright of this compilation exists with the editors, except for specific articles, in which instance copyright exists with the author/authors. While we cannot copyright our mailing list, our readers would appreciate it if others would not send unsolicited e-mail using the Marsbugs mailing list. The editors do not condone “spamming” of our subscribers. Persons who have information that may be of interest to subscribers of Marsbugs should send that information to the editors. E-mail subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting either of the editors. Article contributions are welcome, and should be submitted to either of the two editors. Contributions should include a short biographical statement about the author(s) along with the author(s)’ correspondence address. Subscribers are advised to make appropriate inquiries before joining societies, ordering goods etc. Back issues and Adobe Acrobat PDF files suitable for printing may be obtained from the official Marsbugs web page at http://welcome.to/marsbugs. The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a channel of information for scientists, educators and other persons interested in exobiology and related fields. This newsletter is not intended to replace peer- reviewed journals, but to supplement them. We, the editors, envision Marsbugs as a medium in which people can informally present ideas for investigation, questions about exobiology, and announcements of upcoming events. Astrobiology is still a relatively young field, and new ideas may come from the most unexpected places. Subjects may include, but are not limited to: exobiology and astrobiology (life on other planets), the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), ecopoeisis and terraformation, Earth from space, planetary biology, primordial evolution, space physiology, biological life support systems, and human habitation of space and other planets. --------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS 1) HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS USE INTERNET TO EXPLORE LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE ThinkQuest release 2) ANTIBIOTICS IN ORBIT By Annie Strickler 3) GALILEO EVIDENCE POINTS TO POSSIBLE WATER WORLD UNDER EUROPA'S ICY CRUST NASA release 00-131 4) TWIN ROVERS FOR MARS: A PRIMER By Andrew Bridges 5) CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS JPL release 6) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 7) ISS STATUS REPORT JSC release 8) STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release --------------------------------------------------------------------- HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS USE INTERNET TO EXPLORE LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE ThinkQuest release http://library.thinkquest.org/C003763 22 August 2000 When they first set out to create an entry for the international web site design competition, ThinkQuest, the three students from the United Kingdom and Canada had no idea how far their entry would go. Adrian Hon from England, and David Sewell and Katherine Harris from Canada spent the last year constructing one of the most comprehensive educational web sites on the Internet--and all of this was done while they were still at school. The web site, “Astrobiology: The Living Universe,” covers every aspect of the young science of astrobiology that includes exobiology, humans in space, planetary biology and the origins of life. With over 100 pages of extensively researched and interactive multimedia content coming to over 100,000 words in total, “Astrobiology: The Living Universe” can hardly be described as your normal student web site. Spurred on by the prospect of a trip to Cairo and a university scholarship for winners, Adrian, David and Katherine decided that their web site would be the best the Internet could offer. Aware that educators and others would appreciate having a hard copy of the information on the site, the three students redesigned every single page into a commercial-quality Adobe Acrobat PDF format. “Astrobiology: The Living Universe” is not just a web site, it also amounts to a free, 400 page richly illustrated textbook. Still not content, Adrian Hon and Katherine Harris set out to ensure they had the most accurate and up-to-date information on astrobiology by interviewing thirteen of the foremost scientists working in fields relating to astrobiology. Among the scientists interviewed were Dr. Matt Golombek, NASA Mars Pathfinder Project Director and Professor Dan Werthimer, head of the SETI@Home distributed computing project and director of University of California, Berkeley's SERENDIP radio- telescope project. The three students first met as a result of Adrian and Katherine's common interest in the Mars Society. After having reached the semi- finals in last year's ThinkQuest competition, Katherine saw an ideal opportunity to put together a team that would have the technical expertise and passion for knowledge that could bring the new science of astrobiology to students across the world. “Astrobiology: The Living Universe” represents a monumental effort of the parts of these students who had never met before in real life and were forced to communicate over email with a significant time difference. It also provides a shining example of what dedicated students can achieve in producing a truly world-class educational resource. About ThinkQuest ThinkQuest® is the largest and fastest-growing Internet-based education program in the world, allowing students and educators to work in teams to build high-quality, educational web sites on a variety of subjects. There are two ThinkQuest contests--ThinkQuest Internet Challenge and ThinkQuest Junior--with almost $1.5 million in scholarships and cash awards each year. In the past four years, more than 50,000 participants from 100 countries have created nearly 3,000 content-rich Web sites that are made freely available as learning tools via the ThinkQuest Library at http://www.thinkquest.org. The library currently receives more than 3 million hits per day from educators, students, businesses, government agencies, and citizens from around the world. The ThinkQuest programs encourage collaboration, leadership, and critical thinking while simultaneously raising the technological proficiency of its participants. ThinkQuest Internet Challenge The ThinkQuest Internet Challenge, now in its fifth year, continues to grow in popularity and success. An international program for students ages 12-19, ThinkQuest Internet Challenge encourages teamwork among students from different countries, backgrounds, age groups and from schools with diverse levels of access to technology resources. All participants regularly communicate and design their web site entries using the Internet. A team consists of two or three students and one to three coaches. Noteworthy facts from 1999 * the number of completed entries grew by 50% over 1998 * international applications, from outside the United States, increased by more than 50% to 3,500 * one-quarter of all teams are multinational, containing members from different countries * more than half of ThinkQuest's students are from demographic areas with an annual income of less than $45,000 Contact: Adrian Hon +44 (0)151 6257717 adrian@vavatch.co.uk C003763@thinkquest.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- ANTIBIOTICS IN ORBIT By Annie Strickler From NASA Science News 25 August 2000 Most of us remember the highly publicized “John Glenn mission” of 1998 as just that: John Glenn’s mission. But when the Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off on October 29, 1998, Senator Glenn wasn't the only science experiment on board. The shuttle was also equipped to study antibiotic production in an orbiting laboratory. Microgravity--the condition of near weightlessness that occurs in orbital free fall--allows researchers to isolate and then examine how gravity affects a wide range of biological and physical processes. NASA microgravity research includes flames in space, materials science, biology and much more. A growing fraction of this low- gravity experimentation is commercially driven. Researchers think that advances in microgravity science will trigger down-to-earth improvements in everything from internal combustion engines to medicines. One of the many medical experiments performed on STS-95 was designed to study the growth rates and antibiotic production of bacteria in low gravity. With the global annual market for antibiotics valued at more than $10 billion (U.S.), scientists hope to identify and replicate the conditions observed in space that apparently enhance the production efficiency of antibiotic compounds. Pilot studies by BioServe Space Technologies and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute in the 1990s indicated that microbial antibiotic production was increased by up to 200% in space- grown cultures. The production of actinomycin D on STS-95 was 75% higher in space. The benefits of such findings could have widespread application in improving production facilities on Earth. Because the payload on STS-95 was almost fully automated, crew members grappled more with computer glitches than with test tubes or pipettes. Senator Glenn was not directly involved with the antibiotic microgravity experiments. The STS-95 flight provided an important test of some critical new BioServe hardware called the Gas Exchange Fermentation Apparatus, says Dr. David Klaus, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering sciences at the University of Colorado. Replacing test tubes with this device increased antibiotic production substantially. Testing the device in space was just one step in a multipart process that may improve pharmaceutical production on Earth. The immediate goal of the project is to understand what caused the increased efficiency of production observed in space, and ultimately to simulate these responses in ground facilities. Klaus is the Associate Director of Research for BioServe Space Technologies, a NASA Commercial Space Center (CSC). CSCs are consortia of government, academia and industry formed to help the commercial sector realize the potential of the space marketplace. NASA helps fund the development of the hardware and provides access to space; industry funds and drives the research; and academic institutions serve as the focal point between the two. In this case a partnership between researchers at the University of Colorado and Kansas State University merges two disciplines--aerospace engineering and biological sciences. The alliance is part of an effort to foster commercial applications stemming from NASA-industry relationships. With the antibiotic experiments carried out in space, researchers bring back cultures and analyze cells and compounds to see if and how they have changed. However, Klaus says that the 10-14 day period in which a shuttle is typically in orbit is often not long enough to decipher significant changes or trends. To move beyond this shortcoming, a 2-4 month mission is scheduled for next year that will take advantage of the long duration International Space Station facilities. Extended exposure to microgravity on the Space Station will help BioServe and Bristol-Myers Squibb researchers monitor the antibiotics for long-term adaptations and determine if they are beneficial. Klaus says the experiments will involve “multiple sets of inoculation”--growing and re-growing many generations in microgravity and taking samples along the way to analyze production rates and changes at various stages. April of 2001 is the current launch date. For more information on this article, go to http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast25aug_1m.htm. --------------------------------------------------------------------- GALILEO EVIDENCE POINTS TO POSSIBLE WATER WORLD UNDER EUROPA'S ICY CRUST NASA release 00-131 25 August 2000 NASA researchers have the strongest evidence yet that one of Jupiter's most mysterious moons hides a fermenting ocean of water underneath its icy coat. This evidence comes from magnetic readings by NASA's Galileo spacecraft, reported in the Friday, August 25, edition of the journal Science. Europa, the fourth largest satellite of Jupiter, has long been suspected of harboring vast quantities of water. Since life as we know it requires water, this makes the moon a prime target for the search of exobiology--life beyond Earth. “The direction that a magnetic compass on Europa would point to flips around in a way that's best explained by the presence of a layer of electrically conducting liquid, such as saltwater, beneath the ice,” explained Dr. Margaret Kivelson, one of five co-authors at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Kivelson announced that conclusion when she first received telltale readings from the Galileo magnetometer after the veteran spacecraft flew near Europa in January. Her team details its theory about the liquid layer in this week's formal report. “We have good reason to believe the surface layers of Europa are made up of water that is either frozen or liquid,” Kivelson said, pointing out that earlier gravity measurements show a low density, such as water's, for the moon's outer portions. “But ice is not a good conductor, and therefore we infer that the conductor may be a liquid ocean.” Galileo has flown near Europa frequently since the spacecraft began orbiting Jupiter and its moons in December 1995. Pictures from those flybys show patterns that scientists see as evidence of a hidden ocean. In some, rafts of ice appear to have shifted position by floating on fluid below. In others, fluid appears to have risen to the surface and frozen. However, those features could be explained by a past ocean that has subsequently frozen solid, said Galileo's project scientist, Dr. Torrence Johnson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. “This magnetometer data is the only indication we have that there's an ocean there now, rather than in the geological past,” Johnson said. Johnson said the case for liquid water on Europa is still not clinched. “The evidence is still indirect and requires several steps of inference to get to the conclusion there is really a salty ocean,” he said. “A definitive answer could come from precise measurements of gravity and altitude to check for effects of tides.” NASA is planning a Europa Oribiter mission to carry instruments capable of providing that information. Magnetic evidence for an ocean is possible because Europa orbits within the magnetic field of Jupiter. That field induces electric current to flow through a conductive layer near Europa's surface, and the current creates a secondary magnetic field at Europa, the new report explains. Key evidence that the magnetic readings near Europa result from this type of secondary effect, implying a saltwater layer, relies on timing. The direction of Jupiter's magnetic field at Europa reverses predictably as the moon's position within the field changes. During Galileo's flyby in January, the direction of Jupiter's field at Europa was the opposite of what it had been during passes in 1996 and 1998. Kivelson's team predicted how that would change the direction of Europa's magnetic polarity if Europa has a saltwater layer, and Galileo's measurements matched their prediction. “It makes a very strong case that the source of the magnetic signature is a conducting layer near the surface,” Kivelson said. Galileo's magnetometer is also expected to play an important role this fall and winter in joint studies of Jupiter while NASA's Saturn- bound Cassini spacecraft passes near Jupiter. Galileo will be inside Jupiter's magnetic field while Cassini is just outside it, in the solar wind of particles streaming away from the Sun. Scientists plan to take advantage of that positioning to learn more about how the solar wind affects the magnetic field. Galileo completed its original mission nearly three years ago, but has been given a three-year extension and has survived three times the amount of radiation it was designed to endure. Kivelson's UCLA co-authors are Drs. Krishan Khurana, Christopher Russell, Martin Volwerk, Raymond Walker, and Christopher Zimmer. The Galileo mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC, by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_895000/895634.stm http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/08/25/europa.water.ap/index.html http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20000825/sp_europa.html http://www.foxnews.com/science/082500/europa.sml http://www.msnbc.com/news/450560.asp http://www.nationalacademies.org/headlines/#0825 http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast28aug_1.htm http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/europa_ocean_000824 .html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0008/26europaocean/ http://www.universetoday.com/html/topics/europa.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- TWIN ROVERS FOR MARS: A PRIMER By Andrew Bridges From Space.com 28 August 2000 The twin rovers NASA hopes to send to Mars in 2003 might well be the most capable rock hounds the American space agency has ever sent to another planetary body since geologist-astronaut Jack Schmitt roamed the moon on the Apollo 17 lunar mission. NASA announced this month it will launch--under separate cover--the robot twins in May and June 2003, with both arriving at the Red Planet the following January. Each will use a Pathfinder-derived airbag system to bounce down on Mars. Once safely on Mars, the $600 million mission’s rovers will be as mobile as they are skilled, roaming up to 110 yards (100 meters) a day with a complex suite of five instruments in tow. Among them is a panoramic camera with three times the resolution of the stunning images Pathfinder returned in 1997, the first--and last--time NASA sent a rover to Mars. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/rovers_primer_0008 28.html. --------------------------------------------------------------------- CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS JPL release 17-23 August 2000 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Tuesday, 08/22. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. The speed of the spacecraft can be viewed on the “Where is Cassini Now?” web page at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/today/. This week's activity onboard the spacecraft continued to center on the Command & Data Subsystem Flight Software (CDS FSW) Uplink and Checkout. The CDS team has successfully executed the procedure to patch the software load residing on the solid state recorders and load the on-line string with Version 7.0 of the CDS flight software. This completed the update of both Engineering Flight Computers with Version 7.0 software. Version 7.0 has been operating normally and CDS_A remains prime at this time. A final procedure began that will activate all 10 new telemetry modes and verify several new solid state recorder management capabilities. This will execute over five days and use several Deep Space Network (DSN) passes. The Telecommunications Team briefed Division 33 engineers and management on the effect superior conjunction had on Cassini's telecommunication and radiometric performance. The program plans to continue to gather data during conjunction events in order to characterize expected performance during orbital operations, particularly the period around Saturn Orbit Insertion. A Preliminary Sequence Integration & Validation (SIV) meeting was held this week for the final activity in C21. This is an instrument turn-on sequence that will be uplinked next week and execute after the conclusion of CDS FSW Checkout. A briefing was held for the Jupiter Science Phase G (C25) portion of the Jupiter Subphase. Phase G covers the period of +72 days from Jupiter closest approach to +120 days and will be the final sequence containing Jupiter observations. Approval was given by the Program Manager for the Science Planning Virtual Team (SPVT) to begin implementation. Later in the week the SPVT held the kickoff meeting for the C25 cruise sequence. Science Planning presented the post-Jupiter SPVT schedule to the Cassini Design Team. Highlighted was a reduction in development time for the Science Planning portion of sequence generation. Navigation also made a presentation on the Maneuver Automation Process currently in development. Representatives from the Uplink Operations Team (ULO) and System Engineering (SE) met with Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) personnel to continue development discussions of the Cassini Information Management System (CIMS). Progress continues and a prototype delivery is expected late this year. Cassini Radio Science Team personnel gave a talk at the Azusa City Library in Azusa, California, to 50 residents from the area. Six hands-on classroom activities/demonstrations have been approved by Media Relations for posting to the Cassini external web site and will appear there shortly. Outreach staff met with members of the Orange County Office of Education and assisted them in the development of their travelling classroom activities on magnetism. This collaboration will continue through the coming months. --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 28 August – 3 September 2000 This week, Galileo returns observations of Io, and of Jupiter's atmosphere, rings, and magnetosphere as it continues to orbit the gas giant and its family of moons. The observations have been stored on the spacecraft's onboard tape recorder since they were recorded during Galileo's May passage through the heart of the Jupiter system. Data playback is interrupted twice this week. On Tuesday, the Solid- State Imaging camera (SSI) takes four optical navigation images, one of Ganymede and three of Jupiter. On Thursday, the spacecraft performs a standard gyroscope performance test. The optical navigation images will allow flight engineers to determine the health of SSI, after a recent unexpected increase in the amount of power being used by SSI and an increase in a voltage related to its detector. No change was expected in these values during the cruise period. Investigation suggested that a light source internal to the camera had unexpectedly turned on and was apparently the source of the anomalous measurements. This internal light source is used to completely eliminate possible “ghost” images on SSI's charge-coupled device (CCD) prior to shuttering a new image. The light source has since been disabled, and the camera voltage and power consumption have returned to normal. Tuesday's test of the camera will be performed, in particular to assess the degree to which any “ghost” images may need to be accounted for in the future. Through the end of the week, data playback shares Galileo's transmission pipeline with the Dust Detector Subsystem (DDS). For the past three weeks, DDS has been providing real-time measurements of the dust environment surrounding the spacecraft. Periodic measurements made by the instrument in July showed thousands of impacts occurring on some days. The recent observation campaign will allow scientists to get a better understanding of the size, speed, and origin of these dust particles. On the playback schedule, we find observations by the Photopolarimeter Radiometer (PPR), SSI, the Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) and the Fields and Particles instruments (F&P). PPR returns two polarimetry observations of Io, the most volcanically active body in our solar system. The observations were taken at different solar phase angles, and will provide scientists with data on the texture and small-scale properties of Io's surface. SSI returns five observations this week. Two of the observations capture images of Jupiter's rings. The images were taken at high resolution, low solar phase angle, and relatively high tilt angle. They are expected to provide scientists with better determinations of the size distribution and light-scattering properties of ring particles, both in Jupiter's main ring and at its inner edge. The images may also allow detection of wave-like features in the main ring, and undulations in the ring's outer boundary, which could be important for understanding how the rings are maintained by Jupiter's small inner satellites. SSI's remaining three observations will provide scientists with high spatial and time resolution images of the Great Red Spot, which is over 400 years old. The Great Red Spot is so large that two Earths could fit across it! Similar observations were taken at the beginning of Galileo's orbital tour in June 1996, so scientists will be able to observe long-term changes in the characteristics of this long-lived storm. NIMS returns five observations this week. Four are from a series of 10 spectral scans of Jupiter's north polar region. The series consists of 10-minute samples, each separated by 60 minutes, and will provide a unique view of auroral activity on Jupiter. The remaining NIMS observation is one from a series of three global observations of Jupiter. Once assembled, the three global observations will provide a near-complete spectral map of the planet. Finally, continuing from previous weeks, the F&P instruments return portions of a month-long low-resolution survey of Jupiter's magnetosphere. The survey provides scientists with measurements of the plasma, dust, and electric and magnetic fields in the inner and outer regions of Jupiter's magnetosphere, and the transition out into the solar wind. In addition, the survey provides context for higher- resolution recordings also made by the F&P instruments during the encounter. For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page at one of the following URL's: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo --------------------------------------------------------------------- ISS STATUS REPORT JSC release 24 August 2000 International Space Station flight controllers resumed the transfer of propellants this week from tanks aboard the Progress cargo supply craft to tanks aboard the station's Zvezda module and made other preparations for the planned arrival of the Space Shuttle Atlantis early next month. One set of fuel and oxidizer tanks aboard Zvezda is now full following the unloading of propellants from the cargo craft. Propellants will be transferred from the Progress tanks to a second set of tanks on Zvezda this week. The transfer of propellants was interrupted last week due to a sensor problem that was quickly resolved. Also in preparation for the rendezvous by Atlantis in a few weeks, station controllers in the United States and Russia completed two firings of engines on the Progress craft last week. The firings raised the station's average altitude by about 4.5 statute miles. Another engine firing is planned in early September to further adjust the station's orbit in preparation for the shuttle's launch. The seven-member crew of Atlantis, currently targeted for launch September 8, will open the doors to the station's new Zvezda living quarters for the first time in space and prepare the outpost for the arrival of the first resident crew later this fall. Early Monday, Station flight controllers noted irregularities in the charging and discharging of one of five batteries aboard Zvezda and are now troubleshooting the problem. The other four batteries on Zvezda are operating well and the single battery problem has no impact on the station's normal operation. Three additional batteries are currently planned to be installed in Zvezda during Atlantis' mission next month. Station managers are continuing to evaluate and plan the possibility of manually deploying a docking target on the aft end of Zvezda during a spacewalk to be conducted by astronauts Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko when Atlantis visits. The target is positioned near where Lu and Malenchenko are already scheduled to work on other tasks during the planned spacewalk. Meanwhile, International Space Station partners agreed this week to update the station's planned assembly sequence launches, adjusting the launch schedule for some elements in the latter years of station assembly. Target launch dates for the first phase of assembly in orbit, missions planned through the end of 2001, remain basically unchanged. The launches of remaining missions were, for the most part, adjusted later than the previous schedule. The final station assembly flight is now planned for April 2006. The full International Space Station Assembly Sequence, Revision F, is available at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/assembly/flights/chron.html. At the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, preparations of Atlantis for a September 8 launch on mission STS-106 continue at Launch Pad 39B. Space Shuttle managers are planned to meet Tuesday for a review of all mission preparations called the Flight Readiness Review, following which an official launch date will be announced. Also next week, the Canadian-built Mobile Base System is scheduled to join the quarter million pounds of station components now at KSC's Space Station Processing Facility undergoing preflight testing and launch preparations. When launched in 2002, the Mobile Remote Servicer Base System will provide a base for the Canadian Space Station Remote Manipulator System robotic arm as it moves along the eventual 300- foot long station truss structure. Now in an orbit with a high point of 228 statute miles and a low point of 222 statute miles, the 67-ton, 143-foot long International Space Station can easily be viewed from the ground under proper lighting conditions. To see when the station is visible, check the human space flight web site at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/. For updates on all aspects of human space flight, visit http://spaceflight.nasa.gov. --------------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release 25 August 2000 There was one Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking pass during the past week. All subsystems onboard the spacecraft are performing normally. During the only DSN pass, the Navigation Camera CCD heater was successfully powered off and a few images were downlinked. The heater had been on for the past week. During the week, the CCD temperature started at –34°C and reached a steady state value of approximately 7°C. Every few hours an image of the calibration lamp was taken to monitor image quality changes, if any. The initial results are encouraging in that definite small changes are seen in the first few images where the temperature was still below freezing. All remaining images will be transmitted in early September at which time final quality assessment will be made. For more information on the Stardust mission--the first ever comet sample return mission--please visit the Stardust home page at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov. --------------------------------------------------------------------- End Marsbugs, Volume 7, Number 32.